Yep. That is a blindfold she’s wearing. Keeping those scales of justice balanced, and fighting off any opposition with a sword, if she must. This spunky gal means business. AND she was baring her arms long before our current First Lady.

I’m no lawyer, but this is what I remember from a theology class on Ethics.

Good judgment is a personal quality. (Some people develop better judgment than others.)

Judgment requires an understanding of laws, rubrics, or standards of behavior that are expected.

Judgment is the act of comparing personal actions or events in light of laws, rubrics or standards and determining whether compliance occurred.

At Arlington National Cemetary, it is done all day, all night, in every kind of weather, by the Sentinals of the United States Army. I have witnessed The Walk, and it is very moving. Exactly twenty-one steps, in twenty-one seconds, to recall to mind a funeral with maximum military honors.

If you are in the Army, it is incredibly difficult to get into this unit, the Old Guard. They take their job of guarding The Tomb very seriously. They are normally combat veterans, and are seriously prepared to defend The Tomb.

This video was first posted here by Dave in Texas, who noticed that you can hear a rifle salute in the background at around 2:35, for one of our fallen who is being laid to rest with military honors. Just another day at Arlington National Cemetery.

Note the level of detail in the ceremonial inspection by the NCO before a new soldier is deemed worthy of doing The Walk. It is necessary that his weapon and appearance are perfect. The rifle is inspected every which way and stroked with white gloves, to make sure it is super-clean. The shoeshine is observed from all angles. The back of the uniform is checked out for dandruff.

I think it is so cool that the Army does this. Someone is out there, all day, all night, in every kind of weather, long after the tourists are gone and the cemetery gates are closed.

In a freezing January rain in Washington, at 3 a.m., someone is doing The Walk at Arlington, to honor our fallen soldiers.

Happy Memorial Day to all of you.

May we never forget those whose sacrifice made this great country possible.

Nolan Ryan is one of the best pitchers ever. Now, it seems as though he may be one of the best front office executives ever. This guy just screams “winner” when he walks into a room, and you sure as Hell better listen to him when he talks.

The Rangers also have started to accentuate “Texas.” After years of wearing “Rangers” across the front of their jerseys, all but their road grey uniforms read “Texas.”

“He’s a difficult man to say no to when you meet Nolan,” Matwick said. “He’s run banks, run cattle businesses, two (minor league) teams. He knows business. People remember him as a Hall of Fame pitcher, but he’s a very astute businessman.”

Being the astute businessman that he is, Ryan understands that winning is the biggest key to putting seats in the stands. And the biggest key to winning in baseball is pitching, which is what made the Ryan Express famous.

He didn’t win 324 games and throw a record seven no-hitters without knowing a thing or two about pitching.

“I enjoy the business side of it because of the challenges and trying to see what works and what doesn’t work and how we can enhance the fan experience, how we can get more people in the ballpark and all that,” Ryan said. “Also, we knew this: Nothing replaces a winner. If you’re going to draw and have the support you want, you’ve got to have a winner.”

The Rangers arrived at Minute Maid Park for the Houston portion of the Lone Star Series on Friday night leading the American League in innings per start at 61⁄3. That has helped translate into the fourth-best record in the AL for Texas.

“When Nolan speaks, you listen,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “He’s got this Texas drawl about him that he means business. You know he knows what he’s talking about.”

In a rare move by a major league club, the Rangers held two separate camps for the pitchers last winter. In November, the pitchers were given conditioning expectations heading into spring training. It also helped Maddux familiarize himself with his new staff and vice versa.

“In the pitching camp in January we told them what the expectations were the first day in spring training,” Ryan said. “And they were going to be throwing batting practice from the first day on. We expected them to be physically capable of doing that. We didn’t have one person opt out or even try to opt out of any work that we did. I couldn’t be any happier with the way spring training went and the way Mike handled it.”

Trust me, when an ass kicking Hall of Famer comes in and tells you how things need to be done, only a imbecile would ignore him. And just for the hell of it, here is the greatest moment in sports evah!

I first encountered Sobek when he had his own blog, with a really cool tag line about the Hawley-Smoot tariffs which I loved, and he was posing as an Egyptian crocodile god.

It became a regular read for me.

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Now, that’s not the coolest blog persona ever, really it was just a ripoff of the Allahpundit idea, but it worked. Also, I was thinking that anyone still pissed off about the Hawley-Smoot Tarriff Act is awesome.

Maybe some of you out there don’t know about the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. That means you are a retard. I’m not going to give you a link. Use google, you retard.

Eventually, Sobek burned out and quit blogging and joined the misbegotten crew of Main Page Commenters here at Innocent Bystanders.

We learned that he has impossibly cute kids.

Some of us met him in person, and learned that he is a thoughtful, somewhat shy, and very scholarly person. Nobody really cared about that, because we also learned that his wife is super-hot. So we continued to allow him to post at Innocent Bystanders.

We learned that he reads calculus textbooks and learns to speak Farsi for fun (how sick is that?) and he has an obsession for intricately detailed, anal-retentive art projects.

He Whines About How It Hurt His Back To Do This

When I die and go the heaven, and appear before the Throne of Grace, my first question to the Lord God Almighty is going to be, “How did you get Mrs. Sobek to stay with him?”

Still, it’s been worthwhile to get to know Sobek.

Here’s how I normally look at people. There are only two kinds. Energy sinks and energy sources. Nobody seems to be neutral. Some people suck energy out of you, and others give it back.

Sobek is a major source of energy. He is just one of those people who gives it back.

So, for Sobek I’m going to offer a benediction, used by Aaron, which God commanded for Israel, and which we Lutherans continue to speak to this day:

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.